A British candidate to be the next head of Interpol has warned of a “fusion of terrorism and criminality” as extremists turn to underworld tactics to raise funds.
Speaking to an audience including Middle East diplomats in London, Stephen Kavanagh said terrorists are using encryption and corruption to aid their activities as part of a “new era” of cross-border crime.
Mr Kavanagh said Al Shabab militants in Somalia raise about $100 million a year through extortion of local taxes and tolls – almost half as much as the Somali government makes.
He said the “sophisticated and entrepreneurial fusion” of terrorism and crime is “made more dangerous by the ability of terror and criminal groups to use encryption” to hide their activities and launder money.
Asked by The National how he would tackle these threats, the former London counter-terrorism commander said Interpol could be given access to more biometric data.
He said police should prepare for far-right threats and consider whether climate change could lead to extremism.
“I do not want to see local burglars or graffiti artists put on Interpol biometric systems, but we need to understand this is to be used for the most serious criminality,” Mr Kavanagh said.
“What we have to be able to try and do, with counter-terrorism as much as anything else, is to start predicting and looking for those areas where Interpol is unique, and biometric sharing is one of those.”
Interpol will choose its new secretary general this year, replacing Germany's Jurgen Stock.
Mr Kavanagh is one of four candidates for the job, along with Zambia's Mubita Nawa, Pakistan's Faisal Shahkar and Brazil's Valdecy Urquiza.
The head of the 196-country agency oversees its global police databases, specialist investigative teams and its red notices for wanted fugitives.
However, Interpol's budget is fairly small and it has no powers to make arrests or issue red notices unless requested by an individual country.
In his pitch at Britain's Royal United Services Institute, Mr Kavanagh appealed for a new “global mindset” in tackling crime.
He said “ageing law enforcement models” mean police chiefs focus on reacting to events and receive no credit for preventing crime off their patch.
“The international community can no longer view policing as a mainly domestic, reactive, blue-light service,” he said.
“A global crime epidemic needs to be met with a proportionate global response. If we can adopt a global mindset for disease, climate change and extreme poverty, I believe we can do that for this new era of crime.”
Mr Kavanagh, currently Interpol's executive director of police services, assured diplomats the agency is not seeking “control” but wants to see countries “connecting, communicating and co-ordinating”.
Describing Interpol's budget as smaller than that of Essex Police, the force he used to run in the east of England, he called for the “ethical” involvement of the private sector and its own investigative technology.
He said Interpol must remain neutral at a time when conflicts in the Middle East, Ukraine and Africa are “polarising opinion” and threatening global co-operation.
Africa is particularly vulnerable to modern criminal tactics with as many as 90 per cent of companies facing cyber security threats, he warned.
He said the terrorist threat in Somalia means there are prisoners who will at some point be released and need assessing for any continued threat. Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabab has controlled parts of Somalia for years, fought its internationally recognised government and allied with pirates on Africa's coast.
Around the world Interpol could also help share experience in deradicalisation and understand emerging terrorist threats, Mr Kavanagh said.
“We're seeing the extreme violent right manifesting across the world into different forms. We have to be ready to understand whether or not the next step around violent extremism will be climate, environment.”
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Troy Payne, head chef at Abu Dhabi’s newest healthy eatery Sanderson’s in Al Seef Resort & Spa, says singles need to change their mindset about how they approach the supermarket.
“They feel like they can’t buy one cucumber,” he says. “But I can walk into a shop – I feed two people at home – and I’ll walk into a shop and I buy one cucumber, I’ll buy one onion.”
Mr Payne asks for the sticker to be placed directly on each item, rather than face the temptation of filling one of the two-kilogram capacity plastic bags on offer.
The chef also advises singletons not get too hung up on “organic”, particularly high-priced varieties that have been flown in from far-flung locales. Local produce is often grown sustainably, and far cheaper, he says.
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It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?
The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.
A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation while their claim is assessed.
The Home Office provides the accommodation, meaning asylum seekers cannot choose where they live.
When there is not enough housing, the Home Office can move people to hotels or large sites like former military bases.
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